To build the app for development, enable livereload, and start up the server: – – will build the application for development using AOT in –watch mode.

You can choose to run an Express server in parallel with build tasks, with or without Livereload enabled – – Production builds do not require the CLI to be served with the default Express server, just the package.json.

The production build relies heavily on Closure Compiler, which provides excellent optimizations but unfortunately is not compatible with most third party libraries.

It is optimal to only include the library files you need for production, not entire folders.

It is a best practice to tree shake and bundle third party libraries for production, however this process only works if the third party library is packaged with a module pattern such as ES2015 modules.